View allAll Photos Tagged omicron
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the Big-Little reveal this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
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Lake Forest College chartered Omicron Delta Kappa and inducted 25 founding members during a ceremony in the Chapel on Sunday, April 27. Later that day, 20 new members were welcomed to the National Leadership Honor Society, too. The organization aims to recognize and bring together students who are highly involved in a variety of collegiate activities.
Both China and New Zealand adopted a zero Covid policy.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/new-zealand-to-ease-covid-me...
New Zealand to ease COVID measures this week despite Omicron threat - PM
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday the country will move into a system of living with the COVID-19 virus later this week despite the new Omicron variant posing a fresh health threat to the world.
There were no cases of the Omicron variant in New Zealand at this stage but the developing global situation showed why a cautious approach was needed at the borders, she said.
"Omicron is a reminder of the risk that still exists at our borders," Ardern said at the news conference.
New Zealand has some of the toughest border controls in the world and plans to keep borders closed to most international travellers for a further five months.
It also introduced fresh border measures for travellers from nine southern African nation on the weekend, announcing that only citizens from these countries can travel to New Zealand and will have to stay in state quarantine for 14 days.
Ardern said a lot of evidence still needed to be gathered to know the impact of the Omicron variant.
"It may impact on our vaccines, but it may not. It may be more severe or it may be more mild than Delta ... we simply dont know," Ardern said.
Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said authorities were looking at whether more needed to be done at the borders to keep Omicron away.
"It's really just looking to keep it (Omicron) out while we learn more about it," Bloomfield told reporters at the news conference.
New Zealand moves into a new "traffic light" system from Friday that rates regions as red, orange or green depending on their level of exposure to COVID-19 and vaccination rates. Auckland, the epicentre of the country's Delta outbreak, will start at red, making face masks mandatory and putting limits on gatherings at public places.
New Zealand has had about 11,000 cases so far and 43 related deaths.
www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1240340.shtml
Strict control, vaccine research give China edge on Omicron
Inactivated vaccine better in dealing with variants than mRNA vaccine in theory: expert
With the world reporting more cases of Omicron variant on Tuesday and more Western countries hastening to close their doors, China, where so far only Hong Kong has reported cases, is calmly and confidently responding to possible challenges with vaccine research and the experience gained from China's dynamic zero-COVID policy.
Chinese observers said that China will benefit from its COVID-19 policy of preventing imported cases and domestic flare-ups which continues to show its unique advantages facing Omicron. In comparison, observers warned that Western countries are likely to be gripped by Omicron if the variant proves highly infectious, with their unscientific easing of epidemic control measures and overconfidence in vaccines.
On Tuesday, Scotland reported three additional cases of the Omicron variant, bringing the total number in the UK to at least 14, media reported.
Although the US has not announced any cases, US President Joe Biden said on Monday that it was "almost inevitable" that Omicron would be found in the US eventually, following cases reported in Canada.
Biden said the country would not go back to lockdowns, and he would lay out his strategy on Thursday for combating the pandemic over the winter, Reuters said.
As of Tuesday, at least 14 countries and regions including Spain, Germany and Australia have detected the variant.
The spread of the Omicron variant to more countries and regions has increased pressure on China to prevent imported cases, Mi Feng, spokesperson of the National Health Commission (NHC), said at Tuesday's media briefing.
But the mutation sites of Omicron do not affect the sensitivity and specificity of mainstream nucleic acid testing reagents in China, indicating that Chinese mainstream testing reagents could cope with Omicron, said Xu Wenbo, director of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention under the Chinese Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention.
Xu said that China is technically preparing for the Omicron variant and has done preliminary research into different vaccines, including inactivated vaccines and recombinant protein vaccines, and some Chinese vaccine producers have started preliminary design.
Chinese vaccine producer CanSino told the Global Times on Sunday that the company has started working on vaccines against the new variant. Some Chinese bio-tech companies said their nucleic acid testing kits are upgraded and they are able to detect all prevailing variants, be it Delta, Gamma, Beta or Omicron.
The NHC said that apart from Hong Kong, no other places in China have detected the variant. China's current strategy of preventing imported cases and domestic flare-ups is still effective in fending off the variant.
Regarding concerns about Omicron's effect on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at Tuesday's media briefing that he is confident the event will proceed smoothly and successfully as China has experience in dealing with coronavirus.
Unique advantage
Lu Hongzhou, co-director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that China's "dynamic zero policy" has proved the most successful with the smallest losses in the world. China has to stick to its strict policies and vaccination programs, especially when herd immunity has not yet been reached.
Calling China's current COVID-19 policy the country's "magic weapon," chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wu Zunyou said at a Sunday conference that China has to stick to its policies, at least through winter and next spring.
In comparison, measures Western countries have taken to ease controls prematurely can lead to result as "a single spark that starts a prairie fire," as for infectious diseases to spread widely at speed, all it takes is "one fish to slip through the net," Lu said.
The US and some Western countries have adopted a purely vaccine-based epidemic prevention policy because of their over-confidence in their own vaccines, and they have been negligent in other aspects, which has to some extent led to the emergence and rapid spread of the new variant, an immunology expert told Global Times on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
But to some Western media, China's policy means isolation. CNN said in a report on Monday that as much of the world started to learn to live with COVID-19, China "dug its heels and looked increasingly isolated by comparison."
Chinese observers said that the West's choice of COVID-19 response is to some extent a helpless action as they cannot possibly clear their domestic cases with large numbers of locally transmitted cases, and residents are reluctant to cooperate with governments. In some countries, even the leaders do not follow their own rules.
Biden on Monday urged Americans to wear masks, but he has come under fire for flouting his own rules. He was pictured without a mask covering his face over the Thanksgiving weekend in a shop that had a sign on the window requiring customers to wear face coverings, the BBC reported.
In theory, China's inactivated vaccines are better in terms of dealing with virus variants compared with mRNA vaccines, the immunologist said.
"Because inactivated vaccines are based on the principle of inactivating the complete virus sequence and then injecting it into the body, the body can recognize the complete virus sequence after receiving an inactivated vaccine. As long as the virus retains some of its original characteristics, it can be recognized by the body."
For mRNA vaccines that inject only part of the viral sequence into the body, it is easier for the virus to break through its immunity once a more serious mutation occurs, he explained.
"Nevertheless, specific conclusions will have to wait until the laboratory data are available," he said.
China should also speed up developing an inhaled vaccine that can produce effective antibodies in the respiratory tract after it is inhaled through the mouth, which can offer prolonged protection and prevent spread of the virus, Lu said.
Chinese vaccine producer CanSinoBIO and researchers from the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences led by Chen Wei have jointly developed China's first inhaled vaccine, which many experts seen as a promising candidate for booster shots of inactivated vaccines.
WHO's role
Observers pointed out that the WHO's role in leading the world's united fight against the epidemic will become even more important.
Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday that China supports the WHO in continuing to play a leading role in assisting countries in responding to the epidemic and promoting international cooperation against the epidemic.
This week, the World Health Assembly is gathering for a special session during which member states will consider the benefits of developing a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response, the WHO said.
In recent times, the WHO's voice has been influenced from time to time by some Western countries, such as the US which has also affected WHO's authority and leadership to some extent, the anonymous expert said.
"These politicians must be urged to respect and help promote the decisions of WHO scientists, and to reach consensus on the WHO as the international leader in the global fight against the epidemic, which is vital for today's world," he said.
December 20, 2021 - New York City - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by Jackie Bray, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia updates New Yorkers on the Covid-19 spread in New York State, particularly on the Omicron variant, during a press briefing Monday December 20, 2021 in New York City. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)
David Mitchell's Omicron model. Folded from six A4 sheets using my very own silver rectangle version of the folding procedure for the basic unit.
Size: 10.5 cm x 10.5 cm x 10.5 cm
Paper design: Minecraft birch, sandstone, and spruce
History & Glory
Galleria Storica
Anno: 1927 - 1936
Tara: 6,3 - 7,7 tonnellate
Lunghezza: 8300 - 9850 millimetri
Motore: Benzina
Cilindri: 6
Cilindrata: 7060 centimetri cubi
Potenza: 91,5 Cavalli (HP)
Velocità massima: 40 chilometri/orari
Anni 30 - Lo sviluppo del trasporto
Omicron é un autobus prodotto da Lancia tra il 1927 e il 1936, con la costruzione in totale di 601 modelli. E' stato sviluppato in diverse versioni con telaio corto o lungo per l'uso urbano, oltre ad una versione a due piani. Molto lussuoso per l'epoca, venne utilizzato anche per viaggi lunghi. Il telaio Omicron era disponibile in tre versioni, la C (versione corta) e L (versione lunga), entrambi con due assi, e un'opzione a tre assi. Il Omicron C aveva un passo di 8.300 millimetri e il Omicron L aveva un passo più lungo, di 9.530 o 9.850 millimetri. Il modello esposto venne utilizzato come officina mobile per gli autobus del trasporto pubblico a Roma. Rimase in servizio sino al 1956
www.factcheck.org/2022/09/scicheck-qa-on-omicron-updated-...
Q&A on Omicron-Updated COVID-19 Boosters
Earlier this month, the U.S. began administering the first COVID-19 booster vaccines that have been updated to better match the latest circulating coronavirus strains.
Many scientists expect the revised boosters will be more effective than their predecessors, but whether that’s the case and to what degree remains unknown.
The new vaccines, from mRNA vaccine makers Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, are bivalent, meaning that along with the original version of the coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, they also specifically target the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. At the end of August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that together the two subvariants accounted for more than 90% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized the retooled boosters on Aug. 31, and the CDC signed off on the shots the following day, after the agency’s vaccine advisory committee voted 13 to 1 to recommend both boosters.
The authorizations mark a shift in American COVID-19 vaccination policy. In what’s being called a “fall booster ‘reset,’” people will no longer count the number of vaccine doses they’ve received. Instead, the guidelines are simple: If you’ve had your primary series (one dose of J&J or two doses Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna or Novavax) and it’s been at least two months since your last dose, then you’re eligible for one omicron-updated booster.
We’ll explain how the new vaccines are different and what experts are saying about them.
How are the updated shots different from the original ones?
The revised boosters are essentially identical to the original ones, except for a tweak to some of the mRNA included in the shots.
For both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, half of the mRNA in the vaccine includes the instructions used in the earlier vaccines for cells to make the spike protein of the original coronavirus strain. The other half includes the instructions for making the spike protein of the BA.4 and BA.5 strains, which is the same in the two subvariants. The spike proteins trigger a protective immune response in the body.
The dual components are why the boosters are referred to as “bivalent.” For the same reason, you may hear the original vaccines being called “monovalent.”
As before, the new Pfizer/BioNTech booster contains a total of 30 micrograms of mRNA, matching the dosage of the primary series shots, while the revamped Moderna booster contains a total of 50 micrograms, or half of the dosage of the primary series.
Who is eligible to get an updated booster?
People 12 years of age and older are eligible to receive Pfizer/BioNTech’s updated booster and adults 18 years or older are eligible to receive Moderna’s updated booster, two or more months after a previous COVID-19 vaccination.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been boosted or if you’ve received multiple boosters already — everyone who meets the age requirements and has had their primary vaccinations can get the updated booster as long as they are two months or more out from their last COVID-19 dose. (If you’re still not sure if you’re eligible, you can take an online quiz from the CDC to find out.)
The updated boosters are only authorized as booster shots, so they can’t be given to people as primary vaccinations. For the specified populations, the updated boosters are also replacing the earlier versions of the boosters, which are no longer authorized. As a result, all booster doses will be the bivalent ones — except for kids 5 to 11 years old, who are currently only eligible to receive Pfizer/BioNTech’s original booster dose for their age group.
What evidence supports the use of these omicron-updated boosters?
To authorize the updated boosters, the FDA borrowed its approach for influenza vaccines, which each year are modified to match the flu strains that are expected to circulate that season. Because the changes are only tweaks — and because it would be impractical if not impossible to test the vaccines in people prior to the flu season — flu vaccines are approved without doing clinical studies each year.
The omicron-updated boosters are similar in that they have not yet been evaluated in people, although there is other supporting evidence to suggest that they will work. For one, there is clinical data on a slightly different omicron-specific bivalent booster that targets the BA.1 subvariant that was dominant earlier this year.
Moderna tested this booster in about 600 adults who had received two primary doses and one original booster, and at least three months later were given a second original booster or a BA.1 bivalent booster. In blood tests, there was a stronger antibody response a month out in those who had received the BA.1 booster against both BA.1, BA.4/5 and the original virus, as well as against a variety of other variants.
The Pfizer/BioNTech BA.1 bivalent booster was tested in a similar way, in about 600 people over the age of 55, with a median of about six months in between the booster doses. At one month, the antibody responses to BA.1 were better in those who had received the BA.1 booster than the original, and the antibody responses to the original virus were similar in the two groups.
Although similar studies are being done in people for the BA.4/5 bivalent booster now, those results aren’t in yet. However, experiments from both companies show that mice previously vaccinated and then boosted with the bivalent BA.4/5 vaccines have higher BA.5 neutralizing antibody responses than those boosted with the original vaccine.
immune responses.
Still, some experts have been wary of moving forward with a new COVID-19 booster without human data on these specific vaccines. Dr. Pablo Sanchez, a professor of pediatrics at the Ohio State University and a member of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, ultimately voted against recommending the new boosters because of that concern.
“I voted no because I really feel that we need the human data,” he said during the meeting. “There’s a lot of vaccine hesitancy already. We need the human data.” Nonetheless, Sanchez said that, given his age, he was “almost sure” that he would take it.
The rest of the committee, though, felt comfortable enough, given the precedent with flu, to recommend the boosters.
Numerous other countries have opted to go with updated BA.1 bivalent vaccines, which do have clinical data (although the European Medicines Agency, which recommended BA.1-adapted boosters in early September, also recommended the BA.4/5 boosters on Sept. 12). The FDA, however, decided that the best strategy would be to target BA.4/5, since BA.1 is already no longer circulating.
The agency could have waited for the clinical data on BA.4/5, but thought that doing so would sacrifice too many lives. Estimates from the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub suggest that delaying the booster campaign by a month would result in 137,000 more hospitalizations and 9,700 more deaths.
“We have to be a step ahead, or at least we have to try,” FDA chief Dr. Robert Califf explained in a press conference following the authorization of the new boosters. “Because if we waited for all the proof to come in, the wave will have already passed us by and the damage will have been done.”
E. John Wherry, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the difference between BA.1- versus BA.4/5-targeted boosters was likely to be small, but given the choice, he would also opt for BA.5.
“This will not be the last version of the vaccine that we see,” he said. “Going with what’s here currently makes a lot of sense to me.”
As for when the human data on the bivalent BA.4/5 booster will be available, Dr. Peter Marks, the head of vaccines at the FDA, said on Aug. 31 that it would probably be at least until the end of September or October, “because of the time it takes to actually dose and then do the assays.”
How effective are the new boosters?
Scientists don’t know how well the redesigned shots will work. In theory, the omicron-updated boosters should be better than the original boosters in protecting against disease because they will more specifically target the coronavirus strains currently circulating — and some data suggest that will be the case.
It’s also possible the updated boosters will prevent more infections, although that protection will be short-lived.
But as the World Health Organization has said, “The full public health benefit of variant-updated vaccines and their value proposition over current vaccines can only be quantified once vaccine effectiveness data have been obtained.”
The real question is not whether the booster will increase protection — they will, scientists told us — but whether and to what degree the updated booster will be better than the original boosters.
Wherry said he thought the new boosters would be better, but the difference would likely be modest.
“I think it’s important to not give the false sense of hope that this new bivalent vaccine is going to be a magic bullet that stops all omicron viruses,” he said. “We should be expecting that they keep the most vulnerable people out of the hospital, but we should not be expecting them to completely protect from, say, mild disease.”
Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert and pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is not convinced that the updated boosters will be an improvement.
“I think they’re all going to be of value, I don’t think they’re necessarily going to be of any greater value than just boosting with the ancestral strain,” he said. “What worries me in all this is … that it’s sort of being oversold, being overpromised,” Offit added. “I just fear that people might be disappointed.”
How safe are the new boosters?
The exact formulation found in the new boosters has not yet been tested in people, but the revised vaccines are very similar to the original vaccines that have now been given hundreds of millions of times in the U.S. alone and have been shown to only very rarely result in serious side effects.
In addition, both companies tested the slightly different BA.1 omicron-specific bivalent booster in people, and found no new safety concerns. Vaccine recipients reported experiencing the same expected and temporary side effects as the original shots, including pain, redness and swelling at the injection site; fatigue; headache; muscle pain; and fever.
Given the similarity in design and manufacturing process as the original vaccines, the FDA felt very confident authorizing the boosters. Other experts also told us there is no reason to think that the revamped boosters will pose any new safety hazards. Offit, for example, said it was “extremely unlikely” that the new boosters would be any different in terms of safety.
Notably, Sanchez, the sole dissenter on the CDC’s advisory committee, explained after his “no” vote that while he felt there needed to be clinical data to be able to recommend the boosters, he was not that worried about safety.
“I am comfortable that the vaccine will likely be safe like the others,” he said, adding that he would almost certainly get the new booster himself.
Like the original vaccines, scientists do expect the updated shots will carry a small increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle and its surrounding tissue, particularly in young males. Most people who are affected by the rare side effect and are treated, the CDC says, feel better quickly.
Another issue being monitored by scientists is whether boosting could hurt a person’s ability to respond to a future variant, as we have written. But Wherry, who has been following this topic, said there is no indication that is a current risk. “From the data that exists, I see no concern about that whatsoever,” he said. Some animal studies suggest that giving an omicron-only vaccine as a first vaccine dose in animals could be detrimental, he added, but that’s not what is being given to people.
What do experts say about who should get the updated shots, and when?
There is broad agreement that older people and those at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 should get the new boosters. But experts differ on whether young, healthy people should get another dose.
“I don’t think that a healthy young person who has already received three doses frankly needs another dose, because I think they are protected against serious illness,” Offit said. “After about six months after their last dose, they’re not going to be as protected against mild illness, but that’s true of all infections like this one, meaning short incubation period, mucosal infections.”
Offit still recommends that people over 75 years old, those with significant underlying health problems and those who are immunocompromised seek out the shots. Those are the groups, he said, that have benefited from the previous boosters.
But others think it’s reasonable to give the shots more widely, and that younger people should at least consider them.
“Most young, healthy people are protected from severe disease even after three doses and that protection is pretty durable,” Wherry said. The updated booster, he said, is primarily meant to protect the most vulnerable and to perhaps offer a little bit better protection from mild or moderate disease.
“If you’re over 65, everyone should get boosted,” he said. “If you have comorbidities or are immunosuppressed, absolutely get boosted.”
For younger people, Wherry said boosters are still a good idea, but there can be more individual choice — and that people shouldn’t think that the booster will make them impervious to infection.
“I would encourage people to think about their own behavior and when the right timing for the boost would be,” he said. “If you last got a dose of vaccine or were last infected three months ago and you’re a middle-aged, otherwise healthy individual, you may consider waiting a month or two and time your next dose closer to the holidays or closer to when there’s going to be more indoor activities so that peak level of antibodies coincides with when you’re going to be attending family gatherings or be inside more.”
Although two months is the minimum amount of time to wait since the last COVID-19 dose before getting the updated booster, many experts, including Offit and Wherry, suggest that people wait longer than that since last being vaccinated or being infected with SARS-CoV-2.
“The science really says for a young, healthy individual, you’re going to get the best boosting if you wait four to six months,” Wherry explained. “That allows for your memory B cells and memory T cells to mature a little bit, antibody levels to come down from their sort of max peak level after infection or vaccination.”
But for people who are older or have health problems, Wherry suggested consulting a doctor, because those individuals might need to get their doses sooner.
Is this the start of a shift to an annual COVID-19 vaccine?
Maybe. The Biden administration has presented this fall’s booster as the first of a once-a-year shot for COVID-19, similar to an annual seasonal flu vaccine. But while that could be a reasonable approach, it’s too early to truly know.
Some federal health officials have said as much, noting that new variants might disrupt those plans and that older or high-risk people might need more than one vaccine a year. Some experts, including Offit, are critical of the administration for getting ahead of itself on this question. Offit told us it was reasonable to target high-risk groups, but that young, healthy people may not need an annual boost.
Others are more comfortable with the concept. Wherry, for instance, said that given data that protection against severe disease begins to wane a little around nine months, the one-year time frame makes sense as “a benchmark for the average person” — and also is practical.
“A bit of aligning to traditional health care is an important part of this because it’s actually going to help with vaccine compliance, keeping up with what’s new,” he said, adding that there would remain flexibility for higher-risk people, who likely already interact more with the health care system, to get additional doses if needed.
Where can I get an updated booster?
You can find where the new boosters are available in your area by visiting Vaccines.gov. As with other COVID-19 vaccines, the reformulated boosters will be available at pharmacies, community health centers, and some clinics and doctor’s offices. But a lack of funding means they are less likely than the earlier shots to be available in various public health outreach efforts.
In some places, the boosters may be difficult to find at first. Certain locales have reported shortages of the Moderna vaccine in particular in the first weeks of the rollout, in part due to the delayed release of 10 million doses from a packaging plant in Indiana.
Again, the only booster available to people 12 years and older will be the updated one, so even if it’s not advertised as being new or bivalent, that’s what you will receive.
Are the shots still free?
Yes. The U.S. government has purchased more than 170 million doses of the updated boosters, and at this time, all COVID-19 vaccinations remain available to the public free of charge, regardless of immigration or insurance status.
The administration, however, has warned that without additional funding, it expects it will need to transition COVID-19 vaccine costs “to the commercial market” as early as January. When that occurs, the vaccines will likely be covered for most people with health insurance, similar to flu and other vaccines. People without insurance, however, would need to pay out of pocket.
Can I get my updated booster along with my flu shot?
Yes. Health officials are suggesting this pairing be offered to you this fall, since they know that getting both in one go is more convenient and increases the likelihood that you’ll get both vaccinations.
After one nearly nonexistent and one mild flu season — likely thanks to COVID-19 mitigation measures — some experts are concerned this flu season might be worse than normal. The relative lack of flu for two years running likely means there is less immunity in the population and more people will be susceptible. Clues from the Southern Hemisphere, which often presage flu severity in the North, have been mixed. Australia has had a bad flu season in terms of the number of cases, raising concerns — but other countries have not had particularly active seasons.
Regardless of how severe the flu season turns out to be, vaccination is still recommended. Several studies, along with surveillance data, indicate that getting a COVID-19 shot at the same time as a flu shot is safe and doesn’t reduce your immune response to either virus. The temporary, expected side effects of vaccination are usually on par with or only slightly worse in people getting both shots compared with those just getting a COVID-19 dose.
For some individuals, getting the shots together may make sense, but for others, the timing might not be ideal. The CDC recommends getting the flu shot in September or October, but many experts recommend October or later because vaccine protection against flu wanes and may not last the entire season if given too early. Still, getting the flu vaccine a bit early is better than not getting it at all.
If you opt for dual vaccination, you should get the two shots in different arms or in the same arm with the injections at least an inch apart.
This year, for the first time, the CDC is preferentially recommending that people over 65 years of age get a high dose or adjuvanted flu vaccine instead of a standard flu vaccine, given evidence that those shots may work better for this group.
When will kids be able to get updated shots?
Teens 12 and older are eligible for Pfizer/BioNTech’s omicron-updated booster, but the wait is likely to be at least a few more weeks for younger kids.
On Sept. 21, the head of vaccines at the FDA said that the agency was “only a matter of weeks away” from authorizing updated boosters for kids 5 to 11 years old and “a few months away” for children under 5. The day before, the CDC released a planning document saying it expected Pfizer/BioNTech’s booster for 5- through 11-year-olds and Moderna’s booster for 6- to 17-year-olds in “early to mid-October.”
Pfizer and BioNTech had previously said that they expect to submit their EUA application for updated boosters for children 5 through 11 years of age in early October and that they were pursuing an application for the youngest children down to 6 months.
As with the new boosters for those 12 and up, there may not be clinical data in children for the specific vaccine prior to authorization.
At the CDC’s advisory committee meeting, a Moderna representative said that the company would be completing its EUA submission for its original booster vaccine in kids 6 through 17 by mid-September. The company, she said, is currently conducting a study of primary series BA.1 bivalent vaccines and original and BA.1 bivalent boosters in children 6 months to 5 years old, which is expected to be finished by the end of 2022. She added that Moderna was “exploring” ways of testing BA.4/5 bivalent vaccines in children for use as primary vaccinations and boosters.
www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-cd...
U.S. officials prepare for pandemic's next phase as Omicron wanes
WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - U.S. health officials said on Wednesday they are preparing for the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic as Omicron-related cases decline, including updating CDC guidance on mask-wearing and shoring up U.S. testing capacity.
The plans come as a growing number of U.S. states have begun to ease COVID-19 restrictions as cases decline. The seven-day average of daily cases dropped 40% from the previous week, while the daily hospital admission average dropped 28% and the average daily deaths dropped 9%, according to CDC data.
"We're moving toward a time when COVID isn't a crisis, but is something we can protect against and treat. The president and our COVID team are actively planning for the future," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters.
"Our highest, first priority is fighting Omicron," Zients said. "At the same time, we are preparing for the future."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is weighing new COVID-19 guidance, including on when to wear face masks, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at the same briefing, adding that hospital capacity will be a key metric.
The CDC expects many of the revised guidelines will be issued in late February or early March, around the same time mask mandates in several states are lifted, she said.
"We want to give people a break from things like mask- wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen," said Walensky.
Walensky cautioned that people will still have to wear masks in certain situations such as when experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, during the ten days following a COVID-19 diagnosis, or following exposure to someone with COVID-19.
Tom Inglesby, the White House's adviser for COVID-19 testing, said the administration had issued a formal request for information to related companies about how to bolster the nation's testing capacity, including details about supply-chain challenges and market volatility.
The industry's response will help direct U.S. investment, he said at the briefing.
Around 50 million to 60 million people can currently obtain free at-home COVID-19 tests over-the-counter using their insurance cards and the administration is working with more insurers to create point-of-sale options, said Inglesby.
The government has already shipped 50 million orders, or 200 million individual tests, as part of its plan to deliver free tests, said Zients.
www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-masks-cdc-expected...
How the CDC Abandoned Science
Mass youth hospitalizations, COVID-induced diabetes, and other myths from the brave new world of science as political propaganda
The main federal agency guiding America’s pandemic policy is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which sets widely adopted policies on masking, vaccination, distancing, and other mitigation efforts to slow the spread of COVID and ensure the virus is less morbid when it leads to infection. The CDC is, in part, a scientific agency—they use facts and principles of science to guide policy—but they are also fundamentally a political agency: The director is appointed by the president of the United States, and the CDC’s guidance often balances public health and welfare with other priorities of the executive branch.
Throughout this pandemic, the CDC has been a poor steward of that balance, pushing a series of scientific results that are severely deficient. This research is plagued with classic errors and biases, and does not support the press-released conclusions that often follow. In all cases, the papers are uniquely timed to further political goals and objectives; as such, these papers appear more as propaganda than as science. The CDC’s use of this technique has severely damaged their reputation and helped lead to a growing divide in trust in science by political party. Science now risks entering a death spiral in which it will increasingly fragment into subsidiary verticals of political parties. As a society, we cannot afford to allow this to occur. Impartial, honest appraisal is needed now more than ever, but it is unclear how we can achieve it.
Enter the CDC’s new study. Widely covered in news outlets, the January 2022 study claims that kids below the age of 18 who get diagnosed with COVID are 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. “These findings underscore the importance of COVID-19 prevention among all age groups,” the authors write, “including vaccination for all eligible children and adolescents.” But a closer examination of the study again reveals problems.
First, it does not adjust for body mass index. Higher BMI is a risk factor for COVID, prompting hospitalization and diabetes, and yet the CDC analysis does not adjust for weight at all. Second, the absolute risks the study finds are incredibly low. Even if the authors’ finding is true, it demonstrates an increase in diabetes of up to 6 in 10,000 COVID survivors. Third, the CDC’s analysis uses billing record diagnoses as a surrogate for COVID cases, but many kids had and recovered from COVID without seeking medical care. Without a true denominator that conveys the actual number of COVID cases, the entire analysis might be artifact. As the former dean of Harvard Medical School Jeffrey Flier told The New York Times, “The CDC erred in taking a preliminary and potentially erroneous association and tweeting it to specifically create alarm in parents.” Some might view it as a mistake, but after observing these matters for almost two years, I believe it was the entire point of the study: Alarm might boost flagging vaccine uptake in kids. (Already, a better study out of the United Kingdom finds no causal link between COVID and diabetes in kids.)
Manufacturing alarm at the very moment an age or other demographic cohort is targeted for vaccination has become a pattern for the CDC. On May 10, 2021, the FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization for the 12- to 15-year-old cohort to receive the Pfizer vaccine. On June 11, the CDC published a study in MMWR claiming to demonstrate rising hospitalization among this age group; widespread media coverage of the study quickly followed. But the absolute rates for this age group were, in reality, amazingly low: Less than 1.5 per 100,000, which was lower than they had been in the previous December. Meanwhile, a safety signal was being investigated—myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle—which was more common after the second dose, and reported to be as frequent as 1 in 3,000-6,000, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health. Other countries became reluctant to push two doses within the standard 21- to 28-day timeline for these ages. By July, the U.K. had decided against pushing vaccines for this cohort, a decision that was walked back only slowly.
The CDC was undeterred, and in recent weeks the agency’s director has started to push for more doses at these ages. Against the advice of an FDA advisory committee, Rochelle Walensky has moved forward with recommending boosters for 12- to 15-year-olds. This view differs from WHO guidance and that of other countries, including Canada, which is not authorizing boosters for healthy adolescents aged 12-17. But when it comes to vaccination, the CDC has a single policy: All Americans should get three doses, regardless of age or medical conditions. This is not science as such, but science as political propaganda.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, consider a final example: the CDC’s near-total dismissal of natural immunity. Many other countries consider recovery from prior infection as a vaccination equivalent or better, an assumption that makes both medical and intuitive sense, but the CDC has steadfastly maintained that everyone needs the same number of vaccinations whether they have recovered from a COVID infection or not. This view is countered by data showing that vaccinating people who have recovered from
COVID infection or not. This view is countered by data showing that vaccinating people who have recovered from COVID results in more severe adverse events than vaccinating people who have not had COVID.
In order to bolster the claim that people who have recovered from COVID benefit from vaccination as much as those who never had it, the CDC published a fatally flawed Kentucky-based analysis. The August 2021 study compared people who had contracted COVID twice against those who had it just once, and concluded that those who had it once were more likely to have had vaccination. But the study could have easily missed people who had two documented cases of COVID but might have had severe underlying medical conditions—such as immunosuppression—that predisposed them to multiple bouts of infection in a short period. In addition, people who had COVID once and then got vaccinated might not have sought further testing, believing themselves invulnerable to the virus. The study did not adequately address these biases. Months later, the CDC published a stronger, cohort study showing clearly that natural
immunity was more robust than vaccine-induced immunity in preventing future COVID hospitalizations, and moreover, that people who survived infection were massively protected whether vaccinated or not.
But to listen to Walensky tell it, none of these complications even exist. On Dec. 10, 2021, she told ABC News that the CDC had seen no adverse events among vaccine recipients, and denied seeing any cases of myocarditis among vaccinated kids between 5 and 11. On that same day, however, data from her own agency showed the CDC was aware of at least eight cases of myocarditis within that age group, making her statement demonstrably false.
So why does the supposedly impartial CDC push weak or flawed studies to support the administration’s pandemic policy goals? The cynical answer is that the agency is not in fact impartial (and thus not sufficiently scientific), but captured by the country’s national political system. That answer has become harder to avoid. This is a precarious situation, as it undermines trust in federal agencies and naturally leads to a trust vacuum, in which Americans feel forced to cast about in a confused search for alternative sources of information.
Once that trust is broken, it’s not easily regained. One way out would be to reduce the CDC’s role in deciding policy, even during a pandemic. Expecting the executive agency tasked with conducting the science itself to also help formulate national policy—which must balance both scientific and political concerns and preferences—has proven a failure, because the temptation to produce flawed or misleading analysis is simply too great. In order to firewall policymaking from science, perhaps scientific agency directors shouldn’t be political appointees at all.
Ultimately, science is not a political sport. It is a method to ascertain truth in a chaotic, uncertain universe. Science itself is transcendent, and will outlast our current challenges no matter what we choose to believe. But the more it becomes subordinate to politics—the more it becomes a slogan rather than a method of discovery and understanding—the more impoverished we all become. The next decade will be critical as we face an increasingly existential question: Is science autonomous and sacred, or a branch of politics? I hope we choose wisely, but I fear the die is already cast.
Vinay Prasad is a hematologist-oncologist, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer.
Watch his video on the same topic at youtu.be/2C6524soTnA.
www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-prompts-new-covid-19-restric...
Omicron Prompts New Covid-19 Restrictions
Dutch lockdown starts, Germany curbs travel from U.K. and Ireland imposes curfew
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-19/europe-braces-...
Europe Braces for More Covid Restrictions in Time for Holidays
■ Nations desperate not to repeat the U.K.’s recent pattern
■ Some countries were just getting latest waves under control
Europe is racing to fight a surge in Covid-19 infections and the spread of the omicron variant, with some countries considering additional restrictions that would disrupt the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
From a new lockdown in the Netherlands to travel restrictions targeted at the U.K. and emergency meetings scheduled for southern Europe, the continent faces a critical week.
The spread of the highly-transmissible omicron strain risks slamming populations already weary of restrictions. It also comes at a time some countries, like Germany and Austria, were just getting their latest waves under control.
European nations have taken a varied approach to counter the winter Covid wave, but most have emphasized the importance of accelerating vaccination and booster campaigns.
The omicron strain, first detected in Europe less than a month ago, will likely be dominant there by mid-January, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week. Debate continues to rage over whether or not the variant produces milder illness than previous strains.
Much of the effort is focused on not repeating the experience of the U.K., where total Covid infections -- powered by omicron -- rose by about 50% in a week to touch a record 93,000 on Friday.
Another 12,000 omicron cases were reported in the U.K. on Sunday, although government scientific advisers say most cases are going undetected and that the real daily number may already be above 200,000.
U.K. advisers have told the government that new measures are needed within days to protect the health care system. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, trying to avoid another lockdown, has thrown open the country’s vaccine booster program to anyone over 18, and a record 900,000 third shots were given on Sunday.
So far, one of the most effective vaccine programs in the world doesn’t appear to be slowing the spread of omicron, although deaths from coronavirus in the U.K. haven’t risen recently.
“We can’t afford to wait,” U.K. government scientific advisor Mark Woolhouse told Times Radio on Sunday, saying measures don’t have to mean restrictions, specifically, but can be increased testing and the rollout of booster shots.
“Let’s not just focus on restrictions but what level of interventions will make a difference to this surge,” Woolhouse said.
Here are the steps countries have taken or are discussing:
The U.K.
Health Minister Sajid Javid Sunday declined to rule out pre-Christmas restrictions but said any new measures would have to be voted on by parliament. That would require members to be recalled during the holiday recess. Johnson would likely face further rebellion within his ranks after 100 of his Conservative allies voted last week against much milder measures than the tougher curbs now being considered, requiring Johnson to rely on the opposition Labour party for passage.
A key minister, Lord David Frost, quit over the weekend, and warned Johnson in his resignation letter “not be tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere.”
“There are no guarantees in this pandemic,” Javid said when asked whether he would rule out a so-called circuit-breaker lockdown. “At this point, we just have to keep everything under review.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan Saturday declared a “major incident” due to a rapid spread of the omicron variant across the the city, giving him more powers to fight the virus and seek government support. With so many people now staying home, the country has entered what some call a “stealth lockdown” that’s has left retail, hospitality and travel reeling. U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak talked with industry leaders in recent days about providing further aid.
The Netherlands
The Dutch already made their move: the nation returned to a strict lockdown on Sunday. That means schools and non-essential shops are closed, and fewer visitors will be allowed in households. The steps come as the government said the rise of omicron will likely overburden its health care system in January. The new restrictions will remain in place until at least Jan. 14.
Germany
That’s a scenario Germany is trying to avoid, as its health care system continues to struggle with a virus wave that peaked in late November. Hospital demand isn’t expected to subside much for a month or more. The country joined Cyprus and France in imposing stricter rules for travelers from Britain, who’ll have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival, upending holiday plans. France temporarily banned entry for many Britons last week, and Cyprus will require visitors from the U.K. ages 12 or above, regardless of vaccination status, to self-isolate. Germany’s new government is also mulling a vaccine mandate.
France
As well as imposing a ban on U.K. arrivals, France is curbing outdoor revelry on New Year’s Eve to try to limit the spread and protect its hospitals. The government is also turning up the pressure on people to get vaccinated, and from January only immunized people will be able to get a “health pass” that gives access to bars, restaurants, medical facilities and cultural venues.
Spain
Spain will convene an online emergency meeting on Wednesday to analyze the evolution of the pandemic and discuss adopting new measures. Some regions are already requiring proof of vaccination to enter restaurants and bars, but have refrained from more aggressive steps that could put a drag on an economy heavily reliant on services and tourism.
Italy
On Thursday, Italy’s government will also hold an emergency meeting and may look at options such as requiring masks outdoors, shortening the validity of vaccine certificates, and possibly requiring inoculated people as well as the unvaccinated to take Covid tests to access large events, according to people familiar with the matter.
Switzerland
A vaccine laggard, with less than 68% fully inoculated, Switzerland will exclude the unvaccinated from large parts of public life, such as restaurants, museums and gyms. The Swiss government also reintroduced a work-from-home requirement. The measures are in place until Jan. 24.
Ireland
Also starting this week, Ireland will require bars, restaurants, cinemas and sport venues to shut down by 8 p.m. Omicron is already the dominant strain in the country, with public health advisers saying it makes up more than half of new cases.
Austria
Austria was in lockdown when omicron hit, after a low vaccine rate fed a surge in delta cases that swamped the country’s health care system. The general lockdown was lifted earlier this month in time for the holidays. The unvaccinated have also been offered a respite, but after the New Year will once again only be allowed to leave their homes to go to work, do essential shopping, or exercise. The country also mandated vaccines from February. Austria’s daily cases have fallen more than 75% from their peak, and vaccinations have advanced steadily in the past month.
Poland
The Polish government has ordered schools to switch to remote learning through Jan. 9, and tightened capacity limits in public spaces such as restaurants, hotels and cinemas. Limits were reduced to 30% of capacity from 50% previously. The government closed discos and nightclubs as of Dec. 15. The health ministry is also planning to make vaccines mandatory for medical staff, uniformed services and teachers as of March 1. Deaths from Covid in the nation of 38 million people have been running at more than 500 a day.
Woke up this morning and I wrote down this song
You better stay home, You better not fly
Don't go to the bars, I'm tellin' you why
Omicron is coming to town
You better get vaxxed, Or else you might die
Keep wearing that mask, Stop askin' me why
Omicron is coming to town
The chills start when you're sleeping
Fatigue when you're awake
Don't matter if you're red or blue
Get the jab for goodness sake
Oh, you better stay home, You better not fly
Don't go to the bars, I'm tellin" you why
Omicron is comin'
To the ER you'll be runnin'
Omicron is coming...... to Town
We’re easily sidetracked, it appears. One half of id-iom had ventured out into the cold to scrape and blank out our previous wall as the weather was just about sunny enough. After an hour or so out there I head out to see how he’s getting on and rather than paint over the previous wall he’d decided to adapt it into something else entirely. Then I got involved. Then it got dark and we had to come back the next day to finish what we were doing. And it’s still not ready to be painted on again. Like I said, easily sidetracked.
Anyway, if at first glance you thought this was 90’s cartoon legend Johnny Bravo then you’d be very much mistaken. For this is his second cousin twice removed Johnny Omicron. He’s twice as chatty but half as much fun. Now he’s got to go. The wall will be blanked out…
Cheers
id-iom
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
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Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
December 20, 2021 - New York City - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by Jackie Bray, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia updates New Yorkers on the Covid-19 spread in New York State, particularly on the Omicron variant, during a press briefing Monday December 20, 2021 in New York City. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)
December 20, 2021 - New York City - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by Jackie Bray, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia updates New Yorkers on the Covid-19 spread in New York State, particularly on the Omicron variant, during a press briefing Monday December 20, 2021 in New York City. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)
Students celebrated Omicron Delta Kappa’s Founders’ Day at the home of Bob and Winnie Crawford. Bob is an ODK member from Dickinson College and hosted dinner at his Lake Forest home for the College's ODK Chapter. Photo submitted by Bill Dlugokienski.
Omicron Pi, Baylor University, Dr. Jim Moshinskie, advisor - Active fraters and alumni stand in front of the new Science Building at Baylor University in November 2004.
December 20, 2021 - New York City - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by Jackie Bray, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, shown here, and Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia updates New Yorkers on the Covid-19 spread in New York State, particularly on the Omicron variant, during a press briefing Monday December 20, 2021 in New York City. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the Big-Little reveal this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
Why? Because I didn't do this during the first run of photos and because most of you don't know this is going to BrickCon :)
---
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the event this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-coronavirus-as-omicron-sweep...
US coronavirus: As Omicron sweeps the country, New York state offers a glimmer of hope
As the Omicron variant sweeps the country -- pressing many hospitals into crisis mode -- data from New York is offering a glimmer of hope.
The state is "turning the corner on the winter surge," Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.
After a peak positivity rate of 23% on January 3, it's now 16.3% and Covid-19 hospitalizations have also started to decline, she said at a news conference.
"It is still very high, but this will eventually catch up with the trend that is just beginning," Hochul said.
She reported 49,027 new Covid-19 cases, adding that this "is a very positive trend" as the state reported over 90,000 cases just a week ago.
Nearly two weeks ago, as New Yorkers returned to work after the New Year's holiday, Hochul's message was far grimmer, warning the state was "not in a good place" due to the rapid spread of the virus.
We fully anticipate on top of the surge that has already been ongoing that there's going to be another wave that's occurring as a result of these holidays," she said on January 3.
On Friday, she added that residents needed to remain vigilant.
"Recap: cases are trending down, turning the corner, and we have to continue being vigilant. We're not going to spike the football, understand that?" Hochul said.
Study: Omicron is 'inherently milder' than Delta among children under 5
Although the current Covid-19 wave is impacting children across the US with record high infections and school closures, a new study says that the Omicron variant is "inherently milder" among children under 5, with infection leading to "significantly less severe outcomes" than the Delta variant.
The preprint study found about a 70% reduction in hospitalizations, ICU admissions and mechanical ventilation among children infected with Omicron compared with those infected with Delta.
It also found a 29% reduction in visits to the emergency room.
About 1% of children infected with Omicron were hospitalized, compared with about 3% of children with Delta.
"Despite this encouraging result, further studies are needed to monitor the longer-term acute consequences from Omicron infection, the propensity for development of 'long COVID,' the rapidity of spread, potential for mutation, and how prior infections alter clinical responses," researchers of the study wrote.
The study included about 7,000 children infected during a time when the Omicron variant was predominant and about 63,000 children infected when the Delta variant was predominant.
Data on deaths was not included, as there were few reported.
Overall, Covid-19 deaths nationally have lagged from the worst of last winter's surge, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The US averaged 1,659 Covid-19 deaths a day over the past week, compared with a peak daily average of 3,402 on January 13, 2021.
www.cnn.com/world/live-news/omicron-coronavirus-pandemic-...
■ Americans will be able to request free Covid-19 tests starting Jan. 19, with four tests allowed per household, according to senior administration officials.
■ The announcement comes as the US continues to face record hospitalizations, and the CDC updated its mask information to clarify which ones offer more protection.
■ Meanwhile, in France, Paris' strict outdoor mask mandate has been suspended after a French court found its conditions were “neither necessary, nor strictly proportionate to the protection of public health.”
Key steps to take if someone in your family contracts Covid-19
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently changed its guidelines around isolation and quarantine.
CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, who is an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management, offers a few pointers if you or someone in your family contracts Covid-19.
If one member of the family gets diagnosed with Covid-19, what should they do next?
The person who was just diagnosed with Covid-19 should be presumed to be potentially infectious. Everybody else in the family should also get tested immediately. It's possible that the person who tested positive was not the first person to contract Covid-19, and other members may also test positive.
What if everybody tests positive? Do they need to isolate from one another?
If everyone in your household has Covid-19, they do not need to isolate from each other. That's because it's highly unlikely that they have different strains of coronavirus; they probably all got the same strain from one another, and they aren't going to reinfect each other so quickly. The entire family, of course, should be isolating from other people.
What if it's a child who tests positive, and everybody else is testing negative? Who's going to care for the child?
If a young child tests positive for Covid-19 and other family members are at high risk, having the child form a pod with one parent is an option.
The two different "pods" should not interact with one another during the isolation period and the parent caring for the child with Covid-19 should wear a mask when with the child to try to reduce the likelihood of getting infected themselves.
How long should someone be in isolation?
The CDC's new guidelines essentially shorten the isolation period from 10 days to five days, with an additional five days wearing a mask. This means that you should stay fully isolated for the first five days. After that, you can go out — to work, to the grocery and so forth — but you should wear a high-quality, well-fitting mask when out in public. Don't go to settings where you will be maskless, such as restaurants.
When it comes to people in the same family, this guidance means you really shouldn't have meals together or have other casual, maskless encounters with uninfected members of your family in the 10-day period. If families are in two pods, the two shouldn't mix for 10 days inside their house.
N95 masks: How long you can wear them, when to reuse them and how to sanitize them
Compared to cloth masks, properly fitted N95s better prevent tiny particles from getting into your nose or mouth thanks to certain materials — such as polypropylene fibers — acting as both mechanical and electrostatic barriers to shared air, the primary driver of coronavirus infection.
The difference between N95, KN95 and KF94 masks is where the mask is certified, according to Oklahoma's state health department. The US certifies N95s, whereas China approves KN95s. KF94s are Korean-standard masks.
Experts warn to watch out for knockoffs and purchase masks "from a trusted, reputable source," such as Project N95, according to Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.
How long you can wear a N95 mask and when to reuse it
Marr said she'll wear her N95 for up to a week before replacing it, even after wearing it in a crowded indoor setting like a subway car or grocery store.
■ "An N95 mask's material and filtration ability aren't "going to degrade unless you physically rub it or poke holes in it," she said. "You'd have to be in really polluted air ... for several days before it lost its ability to filter out particles. So, you can really wear them for a long time."
However, a known exposure should affect your approach.
■ If "I was working in an office and I was wearing an N95 and someone in my office had tested positive... I'd probably throw out that mask," said Erin Bromage, an associate professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "Because that mask has done its job of trapping the virus and I don't even want to take the risk of it being there and getting on my hands or whatever."
How to sanitize N95 masks
The longer and more frequently you wear an N95 mask, the more contaminated it can become. But particles will die off over the course of a few hours, Marr said, and even faster if you set the face covering aside in sunlight.
■ "Things like temperature and sunlight have an effect, but you don't want to be throwing it in an oven or microwave," Bromage said. "I used to stick mine on the dashboard of my car in summer, and that would do more than enough in regards to the heat and the direct light that it was getting. But in reality, there's nothing you can really do to extend its life through cleaning that is accessible to an average person."
Because N95 masks have that special static charge that helps filter out viruses, you shouldn't wash the masks, as water will dissipate the charge, Marr said.
Can children use N95 masks?
■ "If you see an N95 as marketed for children, that should raise a red flag," Marr added. "Certainly, for children, a KN95 or KF94 will provide better protection on average than a surgical mask or cloth mask."
www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/business/n95-masks-supply-where-to...
There are plenty of N95 masks, but they're not designed for your kids
Omicron VT-AFM XA: Variable-temperature, ultra-high-vacuum, atomic force microscope/scanning tunneling microscope at Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials.
Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the Big-Little reveal this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
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The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at TCU held their 2014 Big-Little Reveal on Friday, October 3.
Sierra, a student at USC, describes the Big-Little reveal this way in her blog: "The day every new member and to-be Big waits impatiently for all semester long is finally here, the day where Little has to wonder no more of which girl she would call Big from this day on for the rest of her life. It's the day of reveal and as all of the Bigs are stressing to get the final touches done and set up the activities for the day, the Little's wait anxiously, excited to finally be united with their one and only but nervous about what is in store for them until that point." For the rest of her post, see www.thisonelifeblog.com/blog/big-little-reveal-week-day-4....
You can learn more about the Lambda Rho chapter of AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
Norther, 1961
Page 71
Delta Omicron Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha
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The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
December 20, 2021 - New York City - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by Jackie Bray, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia updates New Yorkers on the Covid-19 spread in New York State, particularly on the Omicron variant, during a press briefing Monday December 20, 2021 in New York City. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)
December 20, 2021 - New York City - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by Jackie Bray, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia, shown here, updates New Yorkers on the Covid-19 spread in New York State, particularly on the Omicron variant, during a press briefing Monday December 20, 2021 in New York City. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)
www.politico.com/news/2022/01/11/covid-health-officials-c...
Decoding what Biden health officials told Congress about Omicron
In contrast to previous oversight hearings on the administration’s Covid-19 response, Dems raised sharp questions and complaints on the state of the resurging pandemic.
Senators on Tuesday demanded clear answers from the Biden administration health officials on the state of the resurging pandemic and the government's short- and long-term plans for combating it. They mostly got jargon.
In contrast to previous oversight hearings on the Biden administration's Covid-19 response, Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee raised sharp questions and complaints about widespread “confusion and frustration” around who should isolate and for how long after a Covid exposure or diagnosis, or where and when to get tested.
“We want the Biden team to take advantage of the opportunity to speak directly to those frustrations and anxieties,” a senior Democratic aide told POLITICO heading into the hearing.
The answers may not assuage their fears. Here's what was said, and the takeaways:
The question: What is current CDC guidance on quarantine and isolation?
What they said: Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky spent several minutes walking lawmakers through her agency's recently-amended guidelines for Covid infections, which critics have called confusing and contradictory,
“If they are exposed and completely boosted, they do not need to stay home, but they should get a test at day five," Walensky said. "So by five days after your symptoms — if you’re feeling better, if your fever is better, if your cough and sore throat are better, then on day six you can go out, but you have to wear a mask and you have to wear a mask reliably.”
When HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) interrupted to ask for more clarity on what to do between days five and 10, Walensky replied: “You shouldn’t go visit grandma. You shouldn’t get on an airplane.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) later told the officials that many Americans — himself included — don’t even understand what it means to be “exposed.” Biden Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci explained it means 15 or more minutes in close contact with someone known to be infected.
The takeaway: Confusion still reigns. People five days into a Covid infection shouldn’t “go visit grandma,” but if they’re a health care worker, they are cleared to treat grandmas in a hospital. The lack of a testing component to reenter society also reflects the administration’s current scramble to address a severe shortage of reliable tests, leaving the CDC asking individuals to make decisions based on a subjective evaluation of their own symptoms.
The question: How did CDC arrive at those guidelines? Was it a public health or an economic decision?
What they said: Walensky acknowledged that the CDC changed its quarantine and isolation guidance based both on new research about when Covid-positive people are most infectious as well as “the real-world circumstances we currently face” with a decimated workforce.
In particular, she said she has heard from hospitals around the country that “they had plenty of beds, but they didn’t have staff to staff them” and that preventing closures of schools and pharmacies were other top priorities.
The takeaway: Walensky is arguing that even the economic imperative to get more people back to work faster has a health component. If hospitals don’t have enough workers, for example, they could be forced to turn patients away or delay elective procedures.
Yet the acknowledgment that the guidance change wasn’t based purely on science leaves a perception that the government is willing to put workers’ health behind economic interests.
The question: Why are there still test shortages? When will they be resolved?
What they said: Assistant Health Secretary Dawn O’Connell testified that when the Omicron variant began sweeping across South Africa and Europe in the fall and early winter, the Biden administration “immediately reached out to our manufacturers to understand any supply constraints they had and to evaluate their surge capacity.”
Beyond daily follow-up meetings, she said the administration has used the Defense Production Act a dozen times to help free up testing supplies, expand manufacturing capacity and make sure the U.S. gets first priority. And she said it's working to fulfill Biden’s recent promise to provide free rapid at-home tests to those that want them, but added the $3 billion invested in the work so far is “not enough.” Just 10 percent of the 500 million promised tests have been purchased so far.
The takeaway: They're on the case.
The administration is dealing with supply chain hiccups and a testing workforce that is itself sidelined by Covid and other challenges. But lawmakers faulted the administration Tuesday for failing to prepare for the current surge months ago, when demand for testing was lower.
And while the health officials stressed Tuesday that keeping schools open is a priority this winter, the testing shortage has left schools scrambling to obtain enough to track infections and decide who goes to the classroom and who stays home.
The question: Why is CDC data on vaccination rates still spotty and inaccurate? When will the agency get it right?
What they said: Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) pressed Walensky on why the CDC can’t distinguish between booster shots and first vaccine doses, which has led to incorrect data on vaccination rates in her state and elsewhere.
Walensky responded that “CDC is the compiler of the data and we rely on state immunization services to provide CDC the data at the state level.” She added that when people don’t bring their vaccine card to their booster shot appointment, the shot is marked down as their first dose instead of their third.
Walensky couldn't say when the issue will be resolved, but she noted the agency is working with every state to “reconcile” data gaps.
The takeaway: CDC says the blame really rests with states and Americans who don't accurately keep records.
Yet vaccination rates are far from the only area where the federal government has struggled to pull together and make available accurate data on the state of the pandemic. As Walensky noted, data trickles up from underfunded state and local health departments — many of which still operate on manual data entry, fax machines and other outdated technologies.
The problem extends beyond vaccination rates to challenges tracking new variants, collecting information on racial disparities in Covid-19 infections and more — forcing the government to turn to international data to make domestic policy decisions as the pandemic drags on.
The question: Why does the CDC find it “really encouraging” that people with underlying health conditions are dying of Covid?
What they said: Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) expressed concern about remarks Walensky made on Good Morning America on Friday that the CDC found it “really encouraging” that the majority of deaths from people infected with Omicron are happening to people with other medical conditions.
Walensky said the comment was “taken out of context” and that she was referencing a recent study that demonstrated the currently available vaccines are doing a great job protecting most people from Omicron.
“The study was a cohort of 1.2 million people who were vaccinated, and 36 people passed — demonstrating the remarkable effectiveness of our vaccines. But no less tragic are those 36 people who passed because of Covid-19, and many of them had comorbidities.”
She added that the agency is taking additional steps to help people with disabilities.
The takeaway: Walensky still has a messaging problem. While vaccines are holding strong against the new variants and preventing millions of hospitalizations and deaths, people with disabilities, parents of children too young to be vaccinated and other vulnerable groups still feel that the government is not doing enough, or taking their needs into account when crafting policy and guidance.
www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/11/world/omicron-covid-testi...
California hospitals find that Omicron causes fewer hospitalizations and shorter stays.
A new study of nearly 70,000 Covid patients in California demonstrates that Omicron causes less severe disease than other coronavirus variants, results that align with similar findings from South Africa, Britain and Denmark, as well as a host of experiments on animals.
Compared with Delta, Omicron infections were half as likely to send people to the hospital. Out of more than 52,000 Omicron patients identified from electronic medical records of Kaiser Permanente of Southern California, a large health system, the researchers found that not a single patient went on a ventilator during that time.
“It’s truly a viral factor that accounts for reduced severity,” said Dr. Lewnard, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley who was an author of the study, which was posted online on Tuesday and has not yet been published in a scientific journal.
Despite the less severe virulence of Omicron, U.S. hospitals are buckling under an influx of coronavirus cases. Dr. Lewnard said that this was the result of the variant spreading like wildfire. On average, more than 730,000 people are testing positive every day in the United States, almost three times the previous peak last winter.
“Since it’s more transmissible, there will just at some point be a lot of hospitalizations that inevitably occur,” Dr. Lewnard said.
In recent weeks, Britain and several other countries have reported that Omicron has a lower risk of hospitalizations. When the variant hit the United States last month, Dr. Lewnard and his colleagues began analyzing electronic health care records maintained by Kaiser Permanente of Southern California, which serves 4.7 million people.
They analyzed 69,279 symptomatic patients who tested positive for the coronavirus from Nov. 30 to Jan. 1. Three-quarters of the positive samples contained the Omicron variant, and the rest were Delta.
The researchers then followed the people who tested positive to see whether they ended up in the hospital. They excluded the so-called incidental Covid patients who showed up at hospitals for other complaints and tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving.
Compared with Delta, Omicron cut the risk of hospitalization in half, the study found, and the people who came to the hospital with Omicron stayed for a shorter period. The variant cut hospital stays by more than three days, a reduction of 70 percent compared with Delta.
Fourteen of the Delta-infected patients died, while only one Omicron patient did.
As scientists have gathered evidence that Omicron is less severe, they have struggled to understand why. One reason is that the people infected with Omicron have more immune defenses than in previous waves.
In other countries, researchers have found that earlier infections with other variants reduce the chances that people end up severely ill with Omicron. Vaccination also offers protection.
“Vaccines are quite helpful,” Dr. Lewnard said. He and his colleagues found that Californians who were vaccinated were 64 to 73 percent less likely to be hospitalized than unvaccinated people.
Even among unvaccinated people, however, Omicron was less likely to lead to hospitalizations than Delta.
Dr. Lewnard said that this extra analysis showed that Omicron was fundamentally less severe. Studies on animals suggest that Omicron readily infects cells in the upper airway but works poorly in the lungs, which could explain its milder effects.
The Lambda Rho chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi greeting new members during the chapter's second ever Bid Day at TCU. For those of you who don't know what Bid Day is...and I didn't either...all the sororities assemble on the Campus Commons. Then the newbies are released one chapter at a time to run toward their new sisters. It's kinda like a cattle drive, but with a much happier ending.
I also rolled about 90 seconds of video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qnt0kMEWWQ&list=UUlJLPNVzTQB...
You can learn more about AOII here:
www.facebook.com/AOIILambdaRho
This album is part of the event coverage for the Fort Worth Portrait Project. The project tells the story of Fort Worth from 2014 - 2044 one captioned portrait at a time, but I also enjoy covering events like this one too.
Please follow the Fort Worth Portrait Project:
www.redeemedexpressions.com/fort-worth-portrait-project/
www.facebook.com/fortworthportraitproject
www.twitter.com/FWPortraitProj
www.instagram.com/fortworthportraitproject
Do you want to be featured in the project? Just head to the following site with a photo and a caption:
December 20, 2021 - New York City - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by Jackie Bray, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia updates New Yorkers on the Covid-19 spread in New York State, particularly on the Omicron variant, during a press briefing Monday December 20, 2021 in New York City. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor)
History & Glory
Galleria Storica
Anno: 1927 - 1936
Tara: 6,3 - 7,7 tonnellate
Lunghezza: 8300 - 9850 millimetri
Motore: Benzina
Cilindri: 6
Cilindrata: 7060 centimetri cubi
Potenza: 91,5 Cavalli (HP)
Velocità massima: 40 chilometri/orari
Anni 30 - Lo sviluppo del trasporto
Omicron é un autobus prodotto da Lancia tra il 1927 e il 1936, con la costruzione in totale di 601 modelli. E' stato sviluppato in diverse versioni con telaio corto o lungo per l'uso urbano, oltre ad una versione a due piani. Molto lussuoso per l'epoca, venne utilizzato anche per viaggi lunghi. Il telaio Omicron era disponibile in tre versioni, la C (versione corta) e L (versione lunga), entrambi con due assi, e un'opzione a tre assi. Il Omicron C aveva un passo di 8.300 millimetri e il Omicron L aveva un passo più lungo, di 9.530 o 9.850 millimetri. Il modello esposto venne utilizzato come officina mobile per gli autobus del trasporto pubblico a Roma. Rimase in servizio sino al 1956